Russia is making a return to space travel by
sending Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to the International Space Station
on Wednesday. Moscow had been on a decade long break from the space tourism
business.

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Maezawa is one of Japan’s richest
personalities. The 46-year-old will be blasting off to space in the Soyuz
spacecraft accompanied with his assistant Yozo Hirano, a Japanese flag and an “MZ”
logo for Maezawa’s name. The spacecraft was moved to the launch pad in an
unusually wet weather for the region, as per an AFP journalist.

The mission will mark an end to the pause
in Russia’s space travel programme whose last tourist was Canada’s Cirque du
Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte in 2009.

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However, in the last few weeks Russia
achieved a historic feat when the Russian space agency Roscosmos in October
sent actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko to the International
Space Station in order to film scenes for the first movie in orbit in an effort
to beat a rival Hollywood project.

The Russian space industry used to be the
best in the world at a time and were the first to send a man in space, a woman
in space, a satellite in space, make the first spacewalk amongst several others.

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However, their space programmes have taken
a hit in recent years due to rampant corruption, botched launches and a cut in
state funding.

Maezawa is the founder of Japan’s largest
online fashion mall and the country’s 30th richest man according to
Forbes. His journey into space will be piloted by Alexander Misurkin, a
44-year-old Russian cosmonaut. He has been on two missions in the International
Space Station.

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Maezawa and his assistant will spend 12
days in the space station and the whole journey will be documented and later
uploaded on the business tycoon’s YouTube channel with over 7,50,000 subscribers.